Recently, I was looking at performances of Bartok’s “Mikrokosmos” piano exercises and ran across two other astounding child pianists.
Ben Lepetit is a German-speaking prodigy who started at age 3. I couldn’t find a definite age on him, but according to one commenter, he was 11 in this performance, from 6 years ago, of one of Chopin’s hardest etudes—Op. 25, #12 (Ocean)—played here at world-class speed:
This is his performance of Mikrokosmos v.6, #142. Although posted 6 years ago, I think it was recorded earlier, because he looks like 8 or 9 years old. The over-under playing is really difficult:
I don’t know what has become of him; he seems to have disappeared.
Another amazing prodigy is “Forte Yuliana” (her real name is Yulianna Beziazychna), a 10-, going on 11-year-old Ukrainean. Here she is at 9, a year ago, performing another difficult Chopin Etude, #14 (although I don’t think she handles the ending very well):
She is even more impressive (as an old 9 or young 10) in this rendition of Mozart’s Concerto #23 (1st movement):
